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Rom/Com Countdown: Day 6
For all but Mannequin, I felt very confident in posting them that I was sharing good movies with you all. Why? Well, because you just get the feeling that if a movie is still being shown 70 years later, that it has to have some kind of intrinsic label of 'good' attached to it. That external validation that these films have survived for so long gave me the confidence to think I was sharing superior films.
But now? Now we reach the 1990s.
I was born in 1981. This means that I was a teenager throughout the 1990s, which means that all the movies I share from this post onward in RomCom Countdown will be movies I saw either in theaters or in their first run on TV/VHS/DVD -- I have no validation other than my own opinion that these are good films. That is scary! Maybe my taste is crap; sometimes, judging by the fanfiction I choose to read, I tend to agree with this assessment.
And, hello, the last film I saw in theaters was Season of the Witch. Let's be frank: my judgment is suspect on that alone.
Despite all that, I feel very protective of the two films I'm going to share today. I have loved them for over a decade. They are the films that made me say, "I like romcoms!" to begin with. And, for better or worse, they are still the movies by which I judge all other romcoms. They are my personal 'golden age of romantic comedies' and if modern Hollywood could return to making romcoms like these, I would go see them every freaking time.
With all that build-up and expectation, here is where I might let y'all down by admitting what these two films are. They are 1994's Only You and 1995's French Kiss.
The first one, Only You, stars Marisa Tomei and Robert Downy, Jr., which alone means that it's awesome, right? Right!
As a kid who was deeply into the mystical and magical, it's a no-brainer that I was in love with this movie from the get-go. It opens with a young Faith Corvatch (Tomei's character) learning from both a Ouija Board and from a carnival fortune teller that the love of her life is a man named Damon Bradley. Does she know someone by this name? No and, as she grows up, she obviously puts it behind her because when we meet her as an adult, she's engaged to a guy named Dwayne. One day, when she's taking messages for said fiancé, she takes one from one of his old friends who happens to be on his way to Italy -- a guy named Damon Bradley.
So what does Faith do? She hops on a plane to Italy with her sister-in-law in tow to meet Damon Bradley and see if he really is her true love or not. Who she actually meets instead is Peter Wright (RDJ), a shoe salesman from the US who also happens to be in Italy. After bluffing his way to an evening with her by pretending to be Damon Bradley, Peter then becomes Faith's reluctant helper in chasing the elusive DB across the Italian countryside all the while hoping she'll give it up and give him a chance.
The film has a significant subplot dealing with Faith's traveling companion, Kate (Bonnie Hunt), who feels taken for granted and unloved by her long-time husband / Faith's brother, Larry (Fisher Stevens). When a handsome Italian takes a fancy to her, she flirts with the idea of adultery (and maybe divorce) before Larry catches up with him and they hash it out.
In the end, I hope I'm not spoiling it by saying that Faith solves the mystery of Damon Bradley and realizes that she's had her real "Mr. Right" tagging along with her since the beginning -- Peter. Which works out great for them but what about poor Dwayne back in the States? Never mind, those aren't the kind of questions we're supposed to be asking at the end of a romcom. We're supposed to be sighing about how perfect Faith and Peter are for each other and they are. I love every frothy minute of their romance, from beginning to end.
The second film, French Kiss, is probably my favorite romcom of all time. I can't really say it deserves to be, but it is, plain and simple. I loved this movie so much as a kid, I've probably seen it hundreds of times at this point.
With French Kiss, we start with Kate (Meg Ryan) as she bids her fiancé Charlie (Timothy Hutton, for all you Leverage fans!) goodbye as he leaves for France from Canada for some kind of dental convention. He wanted Kate to come with him but she wouldn't for two reasons: one, since she's in the middle of changing her citizenship, she's not supposed to leave the country and two, she has a crippling fear of flying.
The next thing she knows, a drunken, teary Charlie has confessed via phone that he's fallen in love with a French goddesse and is dumping Kate on the spot for his new love. Kate is heartbroken but resolved; she boards a plane to Paris, her desperation to win Charlie back stronger than her aforementioned crippling fear of flying. As she waits in her seat for the plane to take off, Kate is more than keyed up and the situation only gets worse when a rude Frenchman named Luc (Kevin Kline with a ridiculous fake accent!) sits next to her. Their argument distracts her from her fear throughout the flight and he offers her a friendly helping hand when they land...until he disappears mysteriously.
What Kate doesn't know (but the audience learns) is that Luc is a jewel thief and he's hidden a stolen necklace (and a small grape vine!) in Kate's carry-on to sneak it past Customs. When they finally meet up again, he's as panicked as she is when her bag is stolen. They eventually recover it, but the necklace is still missing, as is Kate's passport. With the cops hot on Luc's heels, he follows after Kate as she heads to the south of France, still on the trail of Charlie and his love, Juliette.
On their way to the coast, we're treated to a detour into Luc's past where we learn that he cheats his brother at every turn and that his one dream is to buy a dilapidated vineyard near his village and make a go of it as a winemaker. During this trip down memory lane, Kate finds the necklace in her bag and falls for Luc's cock-and-bull story about it being a dead relative's that he didn't want to declare on his way back in the country. Meanwhile, Luc has sincerely decided to help Kate win Charlie back, so the two continue on.
By the time they catch up with Charlie and Juliette, they have a plan and it works like a charm -- Charlie is entranced by the 'new' Kate he meets. But Kate realizes that it's not Charlie she wants, but Luc. In fact, she loves him enough to work with a friendly police detective to return the necklace so that Luc doesn't go to jail but still gets the money he needs to buy the vineyard. Once all the misunderstandings are worked out, we leave Kate and Luc happy as they work to realize Luc's dream together.
Even though it's merely happenstanceand laziness that has me discussing these two films together, they are a good pair since they share a variety of similarities: the quirky but relatable heroines (both teachers, FYI!), the slightly roguish (but non-threatening) lead, the beautiful European backdrop, the impetuous and life-changing trip, the boring second-fiddle fiancés...I could go on, but I think I've made the point.
Was this just the mode of the mid-1990s? I don't know. Do I love these movies so much because they are far and away better than other romcoms or is it because these were the ones that initiated me into the romcom tradition, the ones that taught me what a romcom was in the first place? I don't have the answers to these questions and probably never will. I don't think I'll ever be able to separate my nostalgic affection from these films long enough to actually look at them more critically than I have here.
I can tell you, though, that despite whatever facet of my love for them, especially French Kiss, might be nostalgia, I watch these films all the time, even now. In fact, I'm probably going to go home and watch French Kiss tonight and I'll laugh and cry in all the right places because I still feel the right emotions in the right places, every time I watch.
Tomorrow…teen-Regann's tastes get snarkier and much more judgment-impaired. But it's still the 90s, so it all makes sense!
But now? Now we reach the 1990s.
I was born in 1981. This means that I was a teenager throughout the 1990s, which means that all the movies I share from this post onward in RomCom Countdown will be movies I saw either in theaters or in their first run on TV/VHS/DVD -- I have no validation other than my own opinion that these are good films. That is scary! Maybe my taste is crap; sometimes, judging by the fanfiction I choose to read, I tend to agree with this assessment.
And, hello, the last film I saw in theaters was Season of the Witch. Let's be frank: my judgment is suspect on that alone.
Despite all that, I feel very protective of the two films I'm going to share today. I have loved them for over a decade. They are the films that made me say, "I like romcoms!" to begin with. And, for better or worse, they are still the movies by which I judge all other romcoms. They are my personal 'golden age of romantic comedies' and if modern Hollywood could return to making romcoms like these, I would go see them every freaking time.
With all that build-up and expectation, here is where I might let y'all down by admitting what these two films are. They are 1994's Only You and 1995's French Kiss.
The first one, Only You, stars Marisa Tomei and Robert Downy, Jr., which alone means that it's awesome, right? Right!
As a kid who was deeply into the mystical and magical, it's a no-brainer that I was in love with this movie from the get-go. It opens with a young Faith Corvatch (Tomei's character) learning from both a Ouija Board and from a carnival fortune teller that the love of her life is a man named Damon Bradley. Does she know someone by this name? No and, as she grows up, she obviously puts it behind her because when we meet her as an adult, she's engaged to a guy named Dwayne. One day, when she's taking messages for said fiancé, she takes one from one of his old friends who happens to be on his way to Italy -- a guy named Damon Bradley.
So what does Faith do? She hops on a plane to Italy with her sister-in-law in tow to meet Damon Bradley and see if he really is her true love or not. Who she actually meets instead is Peter Wright (RDJ), a shoe salesman from the US who also happens to be in Italy. After bluffing his way to an evening with her by pretending to be Damon Bradley, Peter then becomes Faith's reluctant helper in chasing the elusive DB across the Italian countryside all the while hoping she'll give it up and give him a chance.
The film has a significant subplot dealing with Faith's traveling companion, Kate (Bonnie Hunt), who feels taken for granted and unloved by her long-time husband / Faith's brother, Larry (Fisher Stevens). When a handsome Italian takes a fancy to her, she flirts with the idea of adultery (and maybe divorce) before Larry catches up with him and they hash it out.
In the end, I hope I'm not spoiling it by saying that Faith solves the mystery of Damon Bradley and realizes that she's had her real "Mr. Right" tagging along with her since the beginning -- Peter. Which works out great for them but what about poor Dwayne back in the States? Never mind, those aren't the kind of questions we're supposed to be asking at the end of a romcom. We're supposed to be sighing about how perfect Faith and Peter are for each other and they are. I love every frothy minute of their romance, from beginning to end.
The second film, French Kiss, is probably my favorite romcom of all time. I can't really say it deserves to be, but it is, plain and simple. I loved this movie so much as a kid, I've probably seen it hundreds of times at this point.
With French Kiss, we start with Kate (Meg Ryan) as she bids her fiancé Charlie (Timothy Hutton, for all you Leverage fans!) goodbye as he leaves for France from Canada for some kind of dental convention. He wanted Kate to come with him but she wouldn't for two reasons: one, since she's in the middle of changing her citizenship, she's not supposed to leave the country and two, she has a crippling fear of flying.
The next thing she knows, a drunken, teary Charlie has confessed via phone that he's fallen in love with a French goddesse and is dumping Kate on the spot for his new love. Kate is heartbroken but resolved; she boards a plane to Paris, her desperation to win Charlie back stronger than her aforementioned crippling fear of flying. As she waits in her seat for the plane to take off, Kate is more than keyed up and the situation only gets worse when a rude Frenchman named Luc (Kevin Kline with a ridiculous fake accent!) sits next to her. Their argument distracts her from her fear throughout the flight and he offers her a friendly helping hand when they land...until he disappears mysteriously.
What Kate doesn't know (but the audience learns) is that Luc is a jewel thief and he's hidden a stolen necklace (and a small grape vine!) in Kate's carry-on to sneak it past Customs. When they finally meet up again, he's as panicked as she is when her bag is stolen. They eventually recover it, but the necklace is still missing, as is Kate's passport. With the cops hot on Luc's heels, he follows after Kate as she heads to the south of France, still on the trail of Charlie and his love, Juliette.
On their way to the coast, we're treated to a detour into Luc's past where we learn that he cheats his brother at every turn and that his one dream is to buy a dilapidated vineyard near his village and make a go of it as a winemaker. During this trip down memory lane, Kate finds the necklace in her bag and falls for Luc's cock-and-bull story about it being a dead relative's that he didn't want to declare on his way back in the country. Meanwhile, Luc has sincerely decided to help Kate win Charlie back, so the two continue on.
By the time they catch up with Charlie and Juliette, they have a plan and it works like a charm -- Charlie is entranced by the 'new' Kate he meets. But Kate realizes that it's not Charlie she wants, but Luc. In fact, she loves him enough to work with a friendly police detective to return the necklace so that Luc doesn't go to jail but still gets the money he needs to buy the vineyard. Once all the misunderstandings are worked out, we leave Kate and Luc happy as they work to realize Luc's dream together.
Even though it's merely happenstance
Was this just the mode of the mid-1990s? I don't know. Do I love these movies so much because they are far and away better than other romcoms or is it because these were the ones that initiated me into the romcom tradition, the ones that taught me what a romcom was in the first place? I don't have the answers to these questions and probably never will. I don't think I'll ever be able to separate my nostalgic affection from these films long enough to actually look at them more critically than I have here.
I can tell you, though, that despite whatever facet of my love for them, especially French Kiss, might be nostalgia, I watch these films all the time, even now. In fact, I'm probably going to go home and watch French Kiss tonight and I'll laugh and cry in all the right places because I still feel the right emotions in the right places, every time I watch.
Tomorrow…teen-Regann's tastes get snarkier and much more judgment-impaired. But it's still the 90s, so it all makes sense!